Wednesday, December 21, 2005
Dodgers - The Next Step in The Transformation
The Los Angeles Dodgers have been making quite a few acquisitions this offseason. Their new players (and manager) all have one of the following in common:
1) They help Frank McCourt realize his dream of owning the Red Sox by slowly turning the Dodgers into the Red Sox.
2) They are people that Ned Colletti knew when he was with the Giants.
As it stands now, though, the Dodgers have a major need to fill in starting pitching. It seems like the only logical step is to combine these two, in a rather unconventional method.
One of the more popular, and older, players on the Red Sox, who has been on the team since 1995 is Tim Wakefield. Wakefield is best known for being a knuckleball pitcher, which enables him to have the most wins of his career this past season at age 39, and will allow him to play until he's about 60. The Dodgers do not currently have a knuckleball pitcher, and haven't since Tom Candiotti.
Enter the Giants.
Yes, the hated enemy in San Francisco has the nephew of a hall-of-fame knuckleballer, whose father was also a good knuckleballer. This would be their first baseman, Lance Niekro.
Yes, first baseman.
But as we will find out, this is actually advantageous. Clicking on Wakefield's biography reveals the following information:
The Dodgers just re-signed Hee Seop Choi for some unknown reason, but this may be the perfect oppurtunity to get a starting pitcher and get rid of Choi. All they have to do is trade Choi (and maybe throw in someone else they don't want) for Niekro. Then, they release their grand experiment. As Wikipedia reveals,
So we have a move here that would satisfy McCourt's desires as well as Colletti's tendencies. All it will take is a little bit of gambling. But hey, could he really be worse than Scott Erickson?
1) They help Frank McCourt realize his dream of owning the Red Sox by slowly turning the Dodgers into the Red Sox.
2) They are people that Ned Colletti knew when he was with the Giants.
As it stands now, though, the Dodgers have a major need to fill in starting pitching. It seems like the only logical step is to combine these two, in a rather unconventional method.
One of the more popular, and older, players on the Red Sox, who has been on the team since 1995 is Tim Wakefield. Wakefield is best known for being a knuckleball pitcher, which enables him to have the most wins of his career this past season at age 39, and will allow him to play until he's about 60. The Dodgers do not currently have a knuckleball pitcher, and haven't since Tom Candiotti.
Enter the Giants.
Yes, the hated enemy in San Francisco has the nephew of a hall-of-fame knuckleballer, whose father was also a good knuckleballer. This would be their first baseman, Lance Niekro.
Yes, first baseman.
But as we will find out, this is actually advantageous. Clicking on Wakefield's biography reveals the following information:
Tim attended Florida Tech in Melbourne, and was named Panthers team MVP asA first baseman turned pitcher, eh?
a first baseman as a sophomore in 1987 and as a junior in 1988.
The Dodgers just re-signed Hee Seop Choi for some unknown reason, but this may be the perfect oppurtunity to get a starting pitcher and get rid of Choi. All they have to do is trade Choi (and maybe throw in someone else they don't want) for Niekro. Then, they release their grand experiment. As Wikipedia reveals,
Like his father and uncle, Niekro can throw a knuckleball, although he has
not pitched professionally.
So we have a move here that would satisfy McCourt's desires as well as Colletti's tendencies. All it will take is a little bit of gambling. But hey, could he really be worse than Scott Erickson?
Labels: Dodgers
# posted by StolenMonkey86 @ 4:12 PM 
